Cloud Computing: Branding Fog

By Marc H. Rudov

April 8th, 2009

Incarnation du Jour

When a product has inherent value and its leading purveyor brands it properly, customers will grasp and demand it instantly. Otherwise, “educational” seminars begin sprouting like weeds to fill the void. The latest example of foggy branding is cloud computing.

For the unindoctrinated, the “cloud” is technospeak for the amorphous, nebulous blob that encompasses the Internet and all its working parts. When engineers draw network diagrams, they depict the vast Internet, literally, as a cloud.

John Gage, the fifth employee of Sun Microsystems, is credited with coining the phrase “the network is the computer.” Perhaps, if you’re selling Sun servers. But, do customers view it that way? With cyberspies hacking the US’s electrical grid, maybe not.

Since the dawn of computing, there’s been a periodic swing between remote computing, once called timesharing, and on-premises computing. Cloud computing is the latest incarnation of remote computing — the software, numbercrunching, and network resources external to the customer’s walls.

Ultimately, end-users will gravitate to the incarnation du jour that satisfies their selfish interests — the one they can understand, afford, and control.

Irrepressible Urge

Technologists, unfortunately, have an irrepressible urge to use their vernacular in branding, as if the whole world gets buzzed by buzzwords. We’ve seen this, for example, with Web 2.0, a concept nobody can define. No surprise there are lots of Web 2.0 seminars.

It matters not how “cool” cloud computing might be or how much it excites the various vendors selling it. What matters is whether cloud computing makes sense to a large audience in 15 seconds. It doesn’t, and the number of seminars explaining it is inversely proportional to its visceral appeal.

Five Key Concerns of CEOs with Each Technology Purchase:

We understand, explicitly and implicitly, what it is and why we purchased it

It increases our customer satisfaction and profitability

It makes our internal operations more efficient, effective, and economic

We feel safe with and in control of it — regardless of who runs our IT department

It won’t be obsolete in two years.

Failure to incorporate the aforementioned in product naming and messaging will lead to massive customer confusion and resistance. In other words, branding failure.

One Response to “Cloud Computing: Branding Fog”

Marc, as always, you are right on. if anyone wants to reach the famous “customer”, they need to use the language and expressions the customer understands and realizes, he has a need or desire for.Keep your messages coming !Horst